Drawing on its successes
Construction and engineering students keep the awards coming at City of Glasgow
WITH state-of-the-art facilities nearing completion, one of Scotland’s largest colleges is set to become even more popular with school leavers, employers and employees who wish to improve their job prospects.
City of Glasgow College caters for nearly 30,000 students a year and the good news is that there are still places available for some sought-after courses starting this autumn.
Five years after the college was created by merging three former Glasgow colleges, staff have been able to develop the courses on offer to make them even more suited to the needs of modern employers.
With the new £55 million Riverside campus due to open on August 17 followed by new halls of residence boasting spectacular views over the Clyde, there is excitement about the college as it continues to grow.
There is now a choice of just under 2,000 courses across a wide variety of areas and they can be studied in various modes of attendance such as full time, part-time, day release and distance learning.
The courses vary from access level to Masters so there are options for all, including people with few or no qualifications.
One course suitable for school leavers is the NQ in architectural conservation which requires at least two National 4s or two standard grades and is a broad based course covering wall and floor tiling, joinery, repair and maintenance. A course in its own right, it is also suitable for students moving on to the NC. Like most of the courses in the engineering or building and conservation faculties, a maths qualification is desirable.
Places are also available in the HNC in construction management which covers site administration, construction materials, construction technology, substructure and construction and site surveying. This is a oneday-a-week course over two years, popular with people working in the industry who want to improve their promotion chances.
The second year covers building services in large buildings, construction planning, contracts and health and safety. “This course is well respected within the industry as we do very well with some of our students winning awards,” said Carol Murray, faculty director for building, engineering and energy.
Another course which can be either day release or full-time is the HNC in architectural technology where students learn about architectural procedures, design sketching and computer aided drawing.
“We also look at construction materials and specifications, design of building structures and construction technology in industrial and commercial structures. We have young people coming straight from school on the full-time courses but the students on the day release courses tend to be in their thirties and forties and have been in industry for a while then decided they are not going to progress unless they get qualifications. We find that companies get a lot more from their employees if they have this kind of qualification.”
Mechanical engineering courses fill up quickly at the college but in an effort to encourage more females into the industry, a women-only course is being piloted this year alongside the other four courses.
“We have been trying very hard to address the gender imbalance in engineering and we have created several initiatives including a three-day women in engineering taster course. We are not excluding males as it is only one course out of five but there is a massive requirement for engineers and we are not tapping into half of the population so we are trying to correct that. We still have spaces – if it is successful we will repeat it.”
The course covers engineering principles, material selection, computer aided drafting, energy overview (renewables), maths, dynamics, statics and strength of materials, quality management and fundamentals of control systems and transducers, engineering drawing, DC and AC principles, thermo fluids, communications, pneumatics and hydraulics. There is a three-hour closed book exam, graded A B or C. Two highers including maths are required for entry.
“We are highly successful in mechanical engineering and one of our students this year won the prestigious Scotland-wide Hammerman Award so we feel we are doing a good job.” There are also spaces on the second year of electrical engineering and electronic HNDs which are suitable for students who have completed HNCs at other colleges that don’t offer the next step.
“Engineering destinations from the college are very positive,” said Murray. “Most of our students go on to university or into employment. We have strong links with employers and universities.
“We also have a brand new building and fantastic equipment. Riverside is where all our engineering courses are going to be and it offers new laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment as well as a massive workshop. We are therefore able to build in a lot of practical work into our courses because we believe people learn better that way. We spend a lot of time relating experiments and workshops to the units in the classroom and the students finish with a book showing all the practical work they have done which they can sho w to employers.
“Riverside is a fantastic facility and next year we will have the construction and built environment courses in the new City Campus building on Cathedral Street.”
While this building is not yet finished, the college has already been using the construction work for the benefit of the students.
“We have invested in a lot of equipment for them to go out and do surveying and we have been using the new building for site visits – the construction company, Robert McAl pine, has been really supportive with that.”
Added Murray: “Students will have the joy of working in these new facilities and with so much going on in the college it is bound to become even more popular.”
For more information telephone 0141 566 6222 or check www.cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk.
An information day is also being held at the college on tomorrow, August 5 from noon to 7pm in the Charles Oakley Building in Cathedral Street.